The United Kingdom and the European Union signed the treaty governing Gibraltar's post-Brexit status in Brussels, Belgium, on July 14, the British government said in a press release the same day. Provisionally applied starting July 15, the treaty removes passport checks at the land border, where residents cross with residence cards and Spanish citizens with ID cards, while airport arrivals will face Gibraltarian and Spanish controls, including the European Union's Entry/Exit System for British and non-EU nationals.

The United Kingdom has held Gibraltar since the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, and Spain has never renounced its claim, though residents rejected Spanish rule in a 1967 referendum and shared sovereignty in 2002. Left out of the 2020 post-Brexit U.K.-EU trade deal, the territory faced a hard border until three and a half years of talks produced a political agreement in June 2025, which EU member states approved in April 2026. Spain secured control of the biometric checks in the negotiations, and the treaty transfers no sovereignty.